Kick start

Sept. 20, 2006

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

1 of 1

LOOKING AHEAD: Roger Huerta, training at his hotel in Anaheim, makes his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut Saturday night at The Pond. He will fight Jason Dent in a lightweight undercard match as part of UFC 63. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

LOOKING AHEAD: Roger Huerta, training at his hotel in Anaheim, makes his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut Saturday night at The Pond. He will fight Jason Dent in a lightweight undercard match as part of UFC 63. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Does it belong?

The Register has run some feature stories on UFC participants but generally has not put event stories or results in the newspaper.What do you think? Should The Register run UFC stories and results, or do they only belong online?E-mail sports@ocregister.com or send your opinions to Register Sports, 625 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92701

Roger Huerta used to sell Chiclets and rosaries to tourists in Mexico.

There was no time for school.

He was old enough to walk and talk, so he was old enough to work.

He made pennies, but it was enough to put food on the table and clothes on his back.

Life always has been a fight for Huerta, who was on his own by the time he was 12. He had to fight the temptations of gangs and drugs, and no one in his life pushed him to go to school.

He had to do it on his own.

Now, an ultimate fighter, Huerta will be fighting at UFC 63 in front of nearly 18,000 on Saturday night at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

“I guess he’s just a born fighter,” said Jo Ramirez, who adopted Huerta.

TOUGH TIMES

Huerta has fought his way up the mixed martial arts ranks from the small fight cards on Indian reservations to the UFC, the largest MMA promotion in North America.

Nothing ever has come easy for Huerta. His biological parents went through a bitter split when he was in the first grade. His mother took him from his father out of spite and left the country. She took him from Dallas, dropped him off with her parents in San Salvador, El Salvador, and left.

Huerta, 23, was only 8 years old, but he said he has vivid memories of his brief stay in El Salvador. His grandparents had a pig farm and they never let him out of the house. There was a bloody civil war going on that would last from 1980-92 and claim the lives of 75,000 people.

“I witnessed all that stuff,” he said. “The bombings and the killings.”

Huerta’s mother came back to get him after six months and brought him back to the U.S.

“I don’t think she was all there,” Huerta said of his mother. “It was crazy, but I was relieved because I was leaving. My mom took me back to Dallas and dropped me off at my father’s doorstep. Then she bailed out. She was long gone after that and I haven’t seen her since.”

Huerta was out of the war zone, but things didn’t get any better for him. His father was addicted to drugs and his stepmother was abusive. Beatings were a regular occurrence.

His father couldn’t take care of himself, let alone raise a child, so he took Huerta, who was 10, to live with family in San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico.

The city is home to the Basilica San Juan de los Lagos, which is visited by millions of Mexican Catholics every year. Huerta would make pennies selling Chiclets and trinkets to the tourists.

“I would wake up early in the morning,” Huerta said. “I was selling Chiclets and rosaries to tourists, just anything to get by. That’s all I could do.”

Huerta’s father eventually brought him back to live in Texas, but, again, he was in no condition to care for his son. He lived with his father for a couple of years before he found himself on his own again.

“He got into drugs and, basically, forgot he had a son,” Huerta said. “My stepmom kicked me out of the house. I didn’t have anywhere to go.”

Huerta was a sixth-grader when he was out on the streets. He stayed with friends, moving around a lot and living from couch to couch. Some of the people that took him in were the neighborhood gangsters, but Huerta didn’t want that lifestyle. He wanted something more.

“I had a roof over my head, but at the same time I kept saying I didn’t want to live this life,” Huerta said. “So I kept going to school.”

NEW BEGINNING

He was a natural athlete, so he excelled in football and wrestling at Crockett High in Austin, Texas. His English teacher, Ramirez, said she saw a spark in Huerta and wanted to do everything she could to help him succeed.

She showed him what it would take to get into college, and Huerta listened to everything she said. He ended up getting a scholarship to Augsburg College in Minneapolis because of his wrestling skills. Those wrestling abilities would be the foundation for his MMA career.

“All I kept telling myself was for me to not to live this life, I have to keep going to school,” Huerta said.

Ramirez, who has seven children and 10 grandchildren, legally adopted Huerta after his senior year. The Ramirez family gave Huerta the love he never had. The ultimate fighter could stop battling.

“It can be a little overwhelming when we all get together,” Ramirez said.

Huerta said he wouldn’t even recognize his biological mom if he saw her today and doesn’t know what happened to his father. He said he feels lucky to have met Ramirez and her family.

“Basically, she (Ramirez) is my mom,” Huerta said. “That’s what I see her as. She gave me that love that I never had growing up. I never had it until I was 17 years old.”

WELCOME TO MMA

Huerta met Rich Miller during his first year on Augsburg’s wrestling team. Miller was the one who introduced him to mixed martial arts.

“He (Miller) was in amateur MMA and fought at local bars and I went and watched him once,” Huerta said. “After that I was hooked. I started doing amateur fights and I was knocking people out left and right. I felt I didn’t want to wrestle anymore. I wanted to excel at MMA.”

Huerta quit the wrestling team to devote his time to training in MMA. He met Dave Menne, a former UFC middleweight champion who runs Menne Combat Academy in Minneapolis. They hit it off and Huerta started to train with him.

“There are certain individuals that always have a desire to overcome,” Menne said of Huerta.

“They want to be bigger than what they came from for themselves and for other people.”Huerta, who lives and trains in Minneapolis, quit the wrestling team, but he never stopped going to school. He has six credits left at Augsburg before he receives his bachelor’s degree in business management.

“I grind it every day,” said Huerta, who has developed into a talented 155-pound prospect with a 14-1-1 record. “I go to school every day. I train every day. It’s called discipline.”

Huerta, who makes his UFC debut against Jason Dent (12-6) at The Pond, said he sees himself managing and training fighters when his career is over. And he plans to help at-risk youth.

“I want to help kids that come from the same background as me,” Huerta said. “I want to train them, give them some discipline and some kind of direction in life. I want to show them I didn’t have anything growing up and look where I am today.”

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.